Firehouse Expo has been a mainstay in the fire service since 1984, offering attendees an exciting mix of educational opportunities, special events and exposure to new technologies. With exhilarating Nashville serving as this year’s new host city—coupled with the excitement of Firehouse Magazine celebrating its 40th anniversary—Firehouse Expo is primed to be better than ever, with a multitude of new programs, events and opportunities for attendees and their families.
Hands-on Training
Tuesday, Oct. 18 & Wednesday, Oct. 19
Hands-on training is back! From live fire and rapid intervention to extrication and forcible entry, Firehouse Expo Firehouse Expo offers fantastic hands-on training opportunities focused on a variety of topics. Additional HOT programs will focus on coordinated fire attack, advanced search and flow path tactics, heavy rescue, meth house response, high-rise fire operations, commercial building fires, ladder operations and more.
Pre-Conference Sessions
Tuesday, Oct. 18 & Wednesday, Oct. 19
As part of its pre-conference lineup, Firehouse offers a variety of exciting educational sessions, including those focused on mayday operations, situational awareness, leadership success, tactical TIC usage, grants, violent incidents and more.
Additionally, there will be two special pre-conference programs—Chief-to-Chief and Community Risk Reduction. The Chief-to-Chief program—presented in partnership with the Tennessee Fire Chiefs Association—allows chiefs the opportunity to delve into topics such as authentic leadership in political environments, firefighting tactics based on research, implementation of fire dynamics, management case studies and more. The Community Risk Reduction program—presented in partnership with the Tennessee Fire & Life Safety Inspectors Association—focuses on improving the firefighters’ work environment, working with code officers to create a safer community, closing the door for life safety, and more.
Educational Sessions
Thursday, Oct. 20–Saturday, Oct. 22
Firehouse Expo has an extraordinary lineup of educational programs and speakers. Sessions will cover myriad topics, including elevator rescue, strip mall fires, decision-making on the fireground, training with technology, aggressive interior attack, fire dynamics, ventilation tactics, Project Mayday, rural fire safety, community risk reduction, cultural change, technical rescue operations and rescue task forces, physical and mental health, personal escape systems, incidents involving IEDs, rapid-intervention crews, officer development, motivating volunteer members, incident command, defensive tactics, building construction, overhaul safety, promotional exams, hazmat operations, social media tools, driver/operator tactics, career development and leadership, primary search techniques, and more.
Exhibit Hall
Thursday, Oct. 20, 10:30 a.m.–5 p.m.; Friday, Oct. 21, 10:30 a.m.–5 p.m.; Saturday, Oct. 22, 10:30 a.m.–3 p.m.
Nashville is drawing more than just big crowds and high numbers of attendees. The exhibitors are eager to visit Music City as well. The Firehouse Expo exhibit hall is guaranteed to be bigger and better, with more than 300 exhibitors showcasing the latest in products, technology and services. Further, with a new host city comes a host of new exhibitors as well. From the latest in bunker gear to the newest apparatus, the exhibit hall will have something for every rank.
Moderated Panels
Firehouse Editor-in-Chief Tim Sendelbach will moderate stimulating moderated panels on the exhibit hall floor. Panels will focus on two hot topics: East Meets West, Part IV: Fireground Strategy & Tactics Research and Application on Thursday, Oct. 20, and Safety, Health and Survival on Friday, Oct. 21.
Special Events
Firehouse Expo will feature many special events, designed for all attendees—and even some family members.
- Workouts: For those who don’t want to miss a workout while traveling to a conference, Aaron Zamzow will lead a morning circuit workout on Thursday, Oct. 20. There will also be a 5K/10K run on Friday morning and a 9/11 Memorial Workout on Saturday morning.
- NFFF 9-11 Stairclimb: The NFFF will host a 9-11 memorial stairclimb event at Nissan Stadium—home of the Tennessee Titans—on Friday, Oct. 21.
- Boot Scootin’ Boogie: Join us at the famous Wildhorse Saloon for a night of networking and celebration in support of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, on Friday, Oct. 21.
- IAFF 140 Welcoming Party: The IAFF welcomes attendees to Nashville with a BBQ cookout on Wednesday, Oct. 19.
- Firefighter Wife Commitment Ball: Join us as we celebrate commitment—to the fire service, to our health and to our relationships—at this dinner with inspiring messages, held Wednesday, Oct. 19.
- Post-Expo Concert Celebration: American Idol superstar Bucky Covington and the multi-platinum country music quartet Lone Star will perform on Saturday, Oct. 22.
Visit firehouseexpo.com for additional event details and times.
Legends & Icons Celebration
Reception: Thursday, Oct. 20, 6–6:30 p.m.; Induction Ceremony: 6:30–7:15 p.m.; Celebration: 7:15–9 p.m.
Don’t miss the second annual Legends & Icons Celebration where Firehouse honors four longtime contributors who have made a lasting mark on the fire service. Held at the Music City Walk of Fame Park in the heart of downtown Nashville, the event provides a great opportunity to celebrate the contributions and accomplishments of our inductees and to network with friends and colleagues from around the nation.
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Welcome to Music City
Coming to Nashville for Firehouse Expo is a great way to expand your knowledge base in fireground tactics and leadership opportunities, as well as to meet some of the most important names in the fire service. But it’s also a great way to broaden your horizons in other ways, like experiencing all that this thriving city has to offer. In fact, Nashville was selected as Travel + Leisure Magazine’s Reader’s Choice Destination of the Year for 2016; it was recently ranked in Lonely Planet’s top 10 cities for travel; and Forbes Travel Guide ranks it in the top 16 destinations for 2016 in the world, among the likes of Paris, Rome, Panama, Rio de Janeiro, Geneva and more.
What makes Nashville so great? For one, the music. Nashville grew from a foundation built on music, and that music has been the common thread connecting the life and soul of the city and its people.
Musical Notes
- In 1897, a group of Confederate veterans chose Nashville as the site of a massive reunion. The event was held at the former tabernacle that would later become known as the Ryman Auditorium, known today as the “Mother Church of Country Music.”
- In 1925, the establishment of radio station WSM and its launch of the broadcast that would be called the Grand Ole Opry further secured Nashville’s reputation as a musical center and sparked its durable nickname of Music City.
- The Opry, still staged live every week, is America’s longest-running radio show, in continuous production for more than 85 years. It ignited the careers of hundreds of country stars and lit the fuse for Nashville to explode into a geographic center for touring and recording.
- The modern-day empire of Music Row—a collection of recording studios, record labels, entertainment offices and other music-associated businesses—populates the area around 16th and 17th Avenues South.
- Nashville is home to United Record Pressing, North America’s largest volume producing vinyl record plant. Opened in 1949, United Record Pressing has pressed vinyl records for everyone from Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, and The Beatles to Beyonce, Justin Timberlake and Ludacris.
- Live music can be seen and heard every day and night of the week in Nashville. The world-famous honky-tonks, located on Broadway, offer free live music 365 days a year.
- Nashville has also long been known as the “Songwriting Capital of the World.” Songwriters from all over the world come to Music City to learn the art and share their passion of songwriting. The famous Bluebird Cafe showcases songwriters performing their original music in an intimate “in the round” setting that was created in Nashville and allows them to share the stories of inspiration behind their songs.
Nashville To-Do’s
- Kick off your Nashville experience with a day at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. The world's largest popular music museum offers ever-changing exhibits featuring the legends of country music past and today's hottest stars.
- Take a tour of Music Row and visit historic RCA Studio B, the famous recording studio where Elvis recorded over 200 songs. Roy Orbison, Dolly Parton, Chet Atkins, Eddy Arnold and many more recorded classic hits here.
- In Nashville’s Centennial Park, you’ll find the world’s only full-scale reproduction of the ancient Parthenon in Athens, Greece. The Parthenon houses an art gallery and museum as well as Alan LeQuire’s Athena Parthenos.
- Take a backstage tour and record your own song in the Ryman Auditorium recording studio.
- Revisit the past at Andrew Jackson's Hermitage: Home of the People's President. James K. Polk is buried on the grounds of the historic State Capitol building in downtown Nashville.
- Attention, football fans: The Tennessee Titans call Nashville home, and Nissan Stadium (site of the NFFF 9-11 Stairclimb) will host two Titans’ games to bookend Expo—one versus the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, Oct. 16, and the other against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, Oct. 23.
- Check out Bridgestone Arena, home of the NHL’s Nashville Predators and also another great live music venue.
See you in Nashville!
The Firehouse team is excited to share this transition to Nashville with both new and longtime readers. With a new location comes new educational opportunities and special events, but the devotion to our attendees remains steadfast. We hope to see you at the show to see all that Music City and Firehouse Expo has to offer.
For more information about Nashville—including events, family activities, attractions, music venues, tours and more—go to visitmusiccity.com. To register, visit firehouseexpo.com.
